Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Collagraphy is a printmaking process in which materials are applied to a rigid surface like wood or mount or cardboard. Different tonal effects and vibrant colours can be achieved with the
technique due to the depth of relief and differential inking that
results from the collagraph plate's highly textured surface (source: Wikipedia). It might not come as a surprise that this is really up to my street!

After I glued my collage onto the mountboard with PVA, I sealed it all with two thin layers of shellac knotting. This is a solution for sealing knots and resinous areas of bare timber prior to the application of paints, waxes or polishes. Once dry I created intaglio based prints from my plates, where I applied ink to the entire surface and then removed it from the upper surfaces of the collage materials with scrim. Then it was run through a printing press. It's the same inking process as for my etchings which I wrote about in my previous article.

Below is a plate, about 10 x 20 cm large, that I made with various scraps of (wall)paper, fabric, lace, tule, scrim, acrylic medium with black lava and dried grass from the garden.

For the plate below (10 x 10 cm) I used dried leaves and flowers, dried lychen and some embroidery thread. I sealed it off with acrylic matt medium to see how it would compare with shellac knotting. For just one print it's fine but I wouldn't recommend it if a larger edition is being printed as it's not as tough as shellac knotting.

This plate was created by applying polyfiller (I use the powder form and then add water) onto grey mountboard with a palette knife and embossing a pressed dried flower and a piece of scrim into it. Just before the polyfiller had hardened I took the materials away and an impression was left behind.

Now we have been introduced to various printmaking techniques during the course, we can choose which one to focus on for our personal project. I have already decided to combine drypoint on perspex with collagraphy and in March 2015, when the course is finished, I hope to show you my final design!

Saturday, 6 December 2014

The direct opposite of a relief print which I wrote about in my previous article is an intaglio print. Intaglio printmaking is a technique where the image is incised into a surface (copper, zinc, wood or perspex) and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. Examples are etching, engraving, drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint and collagraphy. In this article I will show you a drypoint print and a few etching prints.

Fot my drypoint I used an etching needle tool and an A4 perspex plate.A picture of a song thrush I saw in RSPB's magazine was my inspiration for the design.

Finally the plate was buffed up with some newspaper. As I wanted to leave a bit of texture of the scrim (circular movements) I only buffed it up very lightly. After I run it through an etching press this was the result!

For the etching process we got a small copper plate which we covered in resin ground or chemical resistant wax material. The underside of the plate was then heated above a candle to make sure the resin would set and cover the whole plate. Once the resin had cooled down I drew a design in it with a blunt needle (you don't need a lot of pressure to make a mark). The plate was then dipped in a bath of acid for about an hour. The acid "bites" into the metal (it dissolves part of the metal) where
it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate. Halfway this process I applied aquatint (spray paint) to a small part of my design which I had completely left uncovered from resin. Aquatint is used to produce tone or shading as areas around the tiny beads of the spray paint (or waxy solution) will be eaten away. The
longer the plate is exposed the deeper the bit and the more ink it will
hold. Once I was happy with the incised lines I cleaned off the plate from the remaining resin.

The plate was then inked all over (this time I used waterbased Caligo ink in the colours sepia and umber), wiped off again with scrim, leaving only the ink in the etched
lines. It was then run through an etching press.

This was not the first time I made an etching. About 35 years ago (!), when I considered going to art school in The Netherlands, I was doing an art course and made an etching on a zinc plate. Luckily I was able to retrieve both the plate and the print!

I really like the etching prints but I find the process very time consuming and I don't like to use chemicals. The drypoint technique on the other hand suits me much better so I think I will create a few more of these during my Printmaking course. Next time I will cover collagraphy which is my favourite printmaking technique!

Monday, 1 December 2014

Last month I signed up for a course Printmaking at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen. Printmaking is a perfect complementary skill to have for my mixed media art practice. The techniques we are going to learn the next few months are Relief printing such as lino cut and Intaglio printing which includes drypoint engraving, etching and collagraphy.

This article shows what I have created during the lino cut session. In my following articles I will write about the other techniques.

A second lino sheet was cut in two stages to create two layers of colours. This is called a reductive lino print. A registration plate is then really necessary to make sure that the second layer is positioned in the correct place.

The white colour (which is the paper) was cut out first and the lino sheet was printed in a midtone colour. Then I cut the rest except for the shadow areas and printed it in a dark colour.

Last year I had already experimented with soft lino which I prefer (but
it's much more expensive!) as it's smoother to cut through. I find lino
takes more effort to cut although you have a bit more control when
cutting delicate designs.

A nice alternative for lino is scratch foam which I found online about two years ago. The advantage is that you don't need a press, only a brush (the back) or non-sharp tool to draw into the foam, a roller and some acrylic paint. You can burnish the back of the paper with a clean roller or with the palm of your hand and then pull off the print.

Below is one of my earlier prints I did. I first embossed the scratch foam with some leaf texture (embossing plate I had bought). Then I drew a flower on top and printed it with black acrylic paint. It's very simple, really effective and great fun for adults and children!

Monday, 17 November 2014

With the days now being so short and dark it's the perfect opportunity for me to catch up with my kayak logbook here. This summer which was packed with so many amazing trips has passed so quickly and it would be a shame not to show you how beautiful Scotland really is!

One of these trips was made in a weekend in July with two friends from Nesky kayak club. We chose to paddle from Helmsdale to Lybster to explore the fascinating remote and exposed coastline here.

The North East of Scotland, source; Google

On Friday night be set up our camp just South of Helmsdale with views across the calm sea. Luckily the favourable weather forecast hadn't changed so we could stick with our initial plan.

After a quick breakfast and breaking down our tents we organised our shuttle, leaving a car behind halfway at Dunbeath and one in Lybster. We left most of our camping equipment in the car because we would set up our tents on the campsite in Dunbeath.

Setting off from Helmsdale we were instantly welcomed by a calm sea, huge cliffs and hundreds of seabirds such as guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and puffins!

The icing on the cake of our first day was to see the impressive and slightly psychedelic sea arch An Dun, where you get the impression of paddling steeply uphill (or downhill depending which way you go) due to the rock strata. While paddling through it and looking up these towering walls next to you, you feel so tiny and even dizzy! We couldn't get enough of this so we spent quite some time here going "up" and "down" again.

Words are just not enough to describe how fantastic this kayak trip
was. It is one of the best for me so far since I took up sea kayaking in
2008. The West Coast of Scotland has always been the first choice for many sea kayakers due it's sheltered coastline and milder weather. I do hope that these photos will show the North East is a hidden gem and that they will inspire kayakers to consider it for their next trip!